As the Delta variant sweeps across the country, causing the biggest spike of COVID cases we’ve seen in months, hospitals in many areas are scrambling to find enough isolation rooms and ICU beds to accommodate patients.
Southern States like South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky are at the highest risk, and some areas, such as Central Texas, have recently run out of ICU beds completely.
These numbers are concerning for healthcare organizations that may lack resources to accommodate new surges of COVID patients. The influx of contagious patients also presents risks of hospital-acquired-infection (HAI) to hospital staff, patients and visitors.
While hospitals and healthcare facilities have standards they must meet to help prevent HAI, there are a number of shortcomings of the current systems for HAI risk auditing and reporting—particularly for airborne infection risk. For example, most airborne infection control reports only measure the “critical areas” of a healthcare facility—which typically amount to 15-20% of a building. This means that traditional reports don’t factor in all of a hospital’s rooms and areas when measuring things like airflow and air balance.
Life Balance Technologies seeks to address these gaps with a revolutionary software solution, called KPac, that helps healthcare systems more effectively understand their infection control standards and possible risks—saving money and saving lives down the road.
It all starts with the map. KPac creates a virtual map of a building’s life safety drawings, which are essentially floor plans that identify life safety and emergency features and are required in almost every public building. Air balance contractors can enter measurements for critical rooms and areas into the virtual map. Once a technician enters data, contractors will receive immediate feedback about whether the room “passes” or “fails” the required standards. This allows technicians to begin balancing rooms faster and eliminates time lags which can lead to increased airborne infection risk. Once the testing and the balancing is complete, KPac generates a report, which includes a detailed result from each room as well as the whole building. The report can be used internally or for periodic compliance filings with accreditation agencies. Life Balance holds the data securely and updates the drawings to account for any structural or regulatory changes
Life Balance has already integrated the software in four hospitals outside of Texas and is looking to onboard Houston-area and Austin-area healthcare facilities as soon as possible. To learn more about KPac, visit our Software Page.
Life Balance Technologies helps hospitals and other companies easily analyze air quality conditions and effectively manage their HVAC systems. By streamlining the process for compliance, auditing, and reporting, we help reduce costs and save lives.
